Chapter Seven

The race

The race was still on. Even if Sam agreed with Kyle on getting prepared for a potential Snitch Gravel attack, the arrival of Tom and Jimmy made him want to try again. He'd taken the maps from Carlos and reworked their path. He chose a shorter but harsher route, hoping that the extra man-power would make up for it.

He wasn't wrong. Tom and Jimmy seemed to possess more energy than the rest of them put together. Cutting their way through the vegetation became a contest just like putting up and gathering the tents.

Sam felt a twinge of guilt about not training or learning how to fire a gun, but it would take time, time they didn't have. Herrison didn't seem thrilled with his idea, but Sam had put his foot down. Herrison wasn't satisfied with anything the contradicted his original planning, even if it wasn't enough anymore. And if he'd called Sam there, he should learn to live with him.

For the first two days, Sam calculated course length and travel duration over and over again, to make sure they weren't losing hours instead of gaining them. But, every time, they came out ahead of schedule. Getting off the beaten path might turn out to be their salvation, especially since Carlos mentioned that Sam was taking none of the usual routes through the jungle.

Every single day, Sam would optimize their course, trying to find the fastest one. He enjoyed spending time with the maps and the endless calculations.

"Sam, we're under attack!"

Sam's heart dashed into his throat and he squeezed the pencil in his hand. Tom's idea of a joke was occasionally terrible.

"No, we're not. That's such a stupid joke. You have no idea how close we're been to getting killed."

Tom bounced into view. "You just don't have a sense of humor."

"You just don't have sense." Sam returned to calculating distances on the map.

"Loosen up. We're doing okay. Even Carlos is impressed with our movement speed." Tom grabbed the pencil out of Sam's hand and drew a line to connect two points. "There, perfect."

Sam yanked the pencil back. He didn't know if to laugh or hit Tom upside the head. "You may look like me, but that doesn't make you any good with maps."

"I'm glad I'm not." Tom huffed. "How geeky would that be?"

Sam tossed the pencil in his direction, but Tom ducked, hooting with laughter. Okay, throwing stuff was immature. Especially since he had no idea where the pencil ended up. Tom was right. Snitch Gravel was draining the humor out of him.

"I thought our resources were limited." Christine came into view. She crouched, picked up the pencil and came towards them. "Nah-ah." She pulled her hand out of Sam's reach and turned her cheek.

Okay, he was obviously humorless if he found this annoying instead of cute. He wrapped an arm around Christine's waist, pulled her against him and kissed her cheek.

"Much better." Christine smiled and gave him the pencil. "Jerry's almost done packing. Herrison said we should go. Don't know why he's so bossy. You've been making all the calls lately." She shrugged and walked away.

"You and Christine are together?" Tom asked as soon as she was out of view, a look of supreme disbelief on his face. "How'd you get the hot chick?"

Sam smirked as he put his stuff away. "I don't know either." He didn't know if they were together either, but he wanted to impress Tom for once. He hoisted his rucksack onto his back and followed Christine.

They continued the trek, Kyle and Jimmy in the lead, cutting plants, joking and occasionally pranking each other. Sam still found it odd to see the two of them getting along. Even after all this time and Jimmy to connect them, Jerry still refused to talk to Kyle, or even look at him properly. Sam tried not to care, but he wished his two brothers would grow up. Kyle ignored Jerry too, though in a less obvious manner. Though they seemed more immature at first, Jimmy and Tom at least had the decency not to jump at each other's throats.

"It's weird, though," Tom said thoughtfully.

Sam snapped out of his thoughts and glanced at him. "What's weird?"

"You and Christine."

"Look, I know I seem dorky and she's gorgeous, but that doesn't—"

"Not that. You can't look dorky. You look like me after all. That's why seeing you with her is weird." Tom tilted his head. "Anyone else hooking up? Is it some sort of fad?"

"Oh." Sam chewed on his lower lip. He hadn't thought how freaky he and Christine must look to Tom. He concentrated on the other question. The obvious answer would have been Jerry and Alice, considering how smitten Alice seemed to be by his brother. But ever since Jimmy arrived, things changed. Alice hadn't complained once about being duped into traveling through merciless vegetation, even if she practically screamed her lungs out at Herrison in the first days. "You should ask Jimmy."

"Yeah, I've noticed him and Alice." Tom didn't sound thrilled. "She really seems to be into him. But I'm glad he's playing along."

Sam raised an eyebrow. He wouldn't call it playing along – more like flirting back, but Tom's comment sounded strange either way. "So, um... do they count?"

"I guess so." Tom grinned. "And then there's Jerry and Tina."

"Yeah, sure." Sam didn't entirely believe this one, even if, unlike him and Christine, Jerry and Tina didn't hide the time they spent together. Probably because no one lectured them, not even the professor. And there was a lot of that time. Most of the day time. Even if they ate and breathed science together, Sam had the feeling the two weren't as emotionally involved as they seemed.

"How much longer until we reach the temple?" Tom asked.

"According to my calculations," Sam checked his watch, "any minute now. Though I could've regally screwed up, which means we're lost."

"You don't know how to screw up. That's why you're no fun." Tom patted his shoulder and picked up the pace.

Sam groaned and hurried up, too. He sometimes thought Tom had too much of a sense of humor. He hardly took anything seriously.

By the time he reached the front of the row, everyone had stopped. Sam's calculations hadn't been wrong. A huge stone construction blocked their path. Massive stairways on all four sides led to a simple square building at the top. The walls were covered in vegetation, some of the steps chipped, but other than that, the ziggurat structure was still whole and impressive.

Sam pulled back as much as possible, to get a good look at the temple. He noticed the intricate design on the sides of the stairs, the crumbling statues at its foot and his heart swelled. He'd actually managed to find a never before explored temple based solely on scattered witness accounts. He couldn't believe he was actually seeing this. It was amazing!

The professor took out a magnifying glass and walked to the foot of the stairs. "These hieroglyphs aren't much of a challenge."

"We're here, way ahead of schedule and with time to spare." Herrison dropped his rucksack and stretched. "Let's set up camp and see what's inside this baby."

"Shouldn't we at least wait until tomorrow before going in?" Jerry asked, looking at Sam as if expecting salvation.

"Why waste a day?" Herrison asked, already pulling stuff out of his rucksack.

"I think we should go in, too." Sam said after a few seconds of pondering. He didn't want to waste a day either, even if it meant Jerry giving him the evil eye. It was still a race after all. Plus, he couldn't wait to see what was inside. "But I also think we shouldn't set camp here. We should find a more secluded place."

"I like your way of thinking, Sam." Herrison smiled. "You'll make a great division leader someday, when you're older. But I don't think it's necessary now. We'll only be here this one night. After we find what we're looking for, we're out of here."

"What makes you so sure we will find what we're looking for?" Kyle asked. "Come to think of it, what makes you sure Snitch Gravel won't show up as soon as we're in?"

Herrison shrugged as if he didn't really care either way. "Fine, have it your way."

"You and Kyle are seriously paranoid," Jimmy mumbled to Sam. "But I'm with you. Poor ol' Herrison would get us killed in no time."

"He's not that bad." Sam had no idea why he was defending Herrison since he'd lied and practically served his family on a platter to Snitch Gravel.

"I know. Decent guy. I bet he's great with paperwork." Jimmy went to set up his tent.

After days of doing it, Sam's tent-set-up skills had improved dramatically. Even so, he was still among the slow ones. Out of the boys, only Jerry took longer. Not that it mattered now that their quest was almost over.

Looking back, Sam was glad he did this, even with the whole Snitch Gravel shadow over his shoulder. If everything went smoothly, they'd be home in time to keep the lie up in front of his parents. Then they could sort out all this agency madness. Though, if he were completely honest, Sam liked the idea of being a secret agent and doing this again. He'd never felt so alive or pushed himself so far. Maybe this could be his future, combining history with action and adventure.

"Let's go, go, go!" Herrison called, strapping a rucksack on.

"What's in there?" Sam asked, following the others to the stairs.

"Just some basics. Rope, matches, flashlights and batteries."

Once they started climbing, no one spoke. The steps were narrow and slippery. Upon reaching the top, Sam dropped on the floor, panting. He hated stairs!

For the first time in days, he saw above the canopy of endless vegetation. The green sea stretched as far as the eyes could see and the sun shined on the pale blue sky. He took a shaky breath. All the climbing had made him dizzy and he put his head between his knees to snap out of it.

Next to him, Tom shook his head. "You're in terrible shape."

"Shut up!" Sam flung a hit in his direction, but almost lost his balance and went tumbling down the stairs. He grasped the edge of the step. Okay, no more sudden movements.

"Don't die," Kyle said. "We need you to read this gibberish."

"Gibberish?" Sam got to his feet. He was still shaky, but imposed control over his muscles. Stairs weren't that big a deal.

Kyle and Jimmy were already brushing vines off the walls. Huge, grey blocks came into view together with carvings. Sam's eyes moved from symbol to symbol, trying to remember what they meant, to form a coherent statement.

"You can read this stuff?" Tom asked in disbelief, searching his pockets. This proved difficult since his jeans seemed to be made entirely out of pockets.

"I don't think read is the right word." Sam crouched and swept away more plants. "This one means sanctuary, then there's the symbol for the sun, and..." He touched a series of tightly packed symbols. "This is a word. An 'n', a 'pp' and a 'cu'..." And then there were a few letters missing. "I think it comes out as dispensable. Weird." He got up and turned to the rest of the group. Jimmy, Tom and Kyle stared at him, dumbstruck. Sam sighed. "The Mayans had letters, phonetic symbols and ideograms, which makes their writing a bit tricky to decipher."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Jimmy asked.

Sam shrugged. "Hobby."

"We should find the door," Herrison said, still panting. "The sooner we're done, the better."

"The door most commonly faces the sun, so we should try the eastern wall," the professor said.

The group moved around the corner of the square building, and stopped in front of the adjoining wall. It was identical to the one they'd been staring at.

"Great, more weeds," Kyle mumbled and he and Jimmy set to work again.

"How do we get in?" Tom asked, searching his pockets again.

Sam looked to the professor for answer even if he felt like he should know this. But he'd only seen pictures of pyramids open for tourists. Even if this temple was almost identical to the one in Chichen-Itza, that one had obvious doors. Not to mention only one staircase instead of four.

"I would expect a combination of bricks would do the trick." The professor waved his hand at the wall.

Sam squinted and moved closer. The stone blocks there were smaller in diameter. He tried to assess where the small blocks started, but too many veins were in the way. It would take freakin' forever to clear all of them. Feeling like a complete moron, he pressed one of the bricks. It went in about a half an inch. Encouraged by this success, he continued pressing. All the bricks went in. He knew it couldn't be that easy.

Tom and Jimmy joined him while the others stood behind them, waiting for a miracle. As he randomly pressed bricks, Sam's mind went over the possible combinations, but there were too few symbols he could form out of squares.

"Any day now," Jimmy muttered, his hands moving so fast, they were almost a blur.

"I don't think this is going to—" The last word was stuck in Sam's throat.

With a loud, ominous crack, the wall rose and the floor trembled. The foul stench of rotting flesh filled the air together with the typical closed space smell. Light shone on a patch of dull stone floor.

"Well, this wasn't supposed to happen." Sam scratched the back of his head. He was sure he'd have to think this through. But they accidentally got the combination right. The only bad part was, he had no idea what to code was. And dumb luck usually scared him. It usually meant something really bad was about to happen to even the scales.

"Eww, it smells awful in there," Alice said, her eyes teary. "I'm the assistant. Can't I stay out?"

"Of course you can," Jimmy said before either Sam or Herrison could open their mouths. "I think all you girls should stay out."

Christine and Tina exchanged an apprehensive look. None of them wanted in, that much was obvious.

Sam held Christine's pleading gaze, wondering what she wanted to do. With the risk of getting it wrong, he opened his mouth. "I think you should stay out, too. We have no idea what's in there."

"No." Tina clasped Jerry's wrist. "We're a part of this, and... even if..." She lowered her eyes.

"You don't have to do this." Jerry squeezed her hand and pulled away.

"I agree." The professor wagged her finger at her. "None of that, Tina. We'll be out before you know it."

"Pedro can stay with you while we're in," Kyle said, looking over his shoulder, inside the temple. "You know, just in case."

Sam's whole body relaxed. He hadn't noticed just how tense he'd been. Mental note: Thank Kyle. The girls would be safe outside.

"Okay, we're staying out," Christine said in a trembling voice. She came over to Sam and hugged him. "What if I never see you again?" she murmured in his ear.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Even if he'd sounded confident, he hugged her back. She was right. There was a possibility they wouldn't come out. He wondered if this would be the right moment to tell her he loved her, because he did, he so obviously did, but it felt a bit dramatic, so he kept quiet.

Christine smiled and wiped her eyes.

"None of that nonsense, Christine." The professor grabbed her arm and nudged her towards the staircase, throwing Sam an ugly look in the process.

"Good luck," Tina said. She hesitated for a minute, then took Sam's hand and squeezed. She then turned to Kyle and did the same. "You too."

"Bye guys!" Alice waved at them as though they were going shopping before starting down the stairs.

Honestly? Probably the iffiest chapter I have. Help? It reads robotic to me and I'm not sure what to do about it.

What's your first impression of Tom and Jimmy? Do you suspect there's something off about them, or are they as innocent as San and  the rest?

Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote and comment!